“Having a combination of these Conjunctions, Oppositions, Squares and Trines/Sextiles is actually a good thing, with the red and yellow aspects indicating opportunities for personal growth, success, genius and inspiration, often with much hard work, but well worth it! … Or not.”

For those of you who might be unfamiliar with birth charts, we thought it would be a good idea to describe to you the basic architecture of a birth chart against a visual of an actual birth chart. This will help give you a reference point should you have an analysis done (and is included) and it will also help you with some of the common vocabulary used throughout myastrologylife.com’s content. We will build upon this post with others, adding more information each time, so it might be easier to absorb and learn. And there is always Google should you desire to investigate things further in the meantime. Just be careful in your research and to be sure to confirm your “answers” by finding at least 3 sources that offer similar information. There can be a lot of varying information floating around our virtual world, and much of it can be misleading. OK, on to the “lesson”. Please reference the image as you read.

1) Houses are represented on the 360-degree Astrological Wheel by the pie-shaped pieces. There are 12 total, usually of varying sizes using the Placidus House System. Houses 1-6 are below the horizontal line, beginning with the First House on the left (or eastern) side, below the dark horizontal line. Houses 7-12 are above the horizontal line, with the 7th house the first one on the right, above the horizontal line. Each House varies in size and represents an area/areas of one’s life. Generally, the Frst House represents Self, Second Value; Third Communication/Nearby Community/Short Distance Trips/Primary Education; Fourth Home/Parent/Ancestors; Fifth Creativity/How We Love One-on-One; Sixth Service/Health/Day-to-Day Work; Seventh One-on-One Partnerships; Eighth Sex/Other People’s Finances & Property/Occult/Inheritance; 9th Religion/Philosophy/Foreign Travel/Higher Education; 10th Career/Public LIfe/Parent; 11th Groups/Organizations/Friends/How Others Love Us; 12th Hidden Matters/Karma. Mind you, the meanings listed here are generally the primary ones for each house, but by no means the finite list.

Astrological Sign Symbols

2) The Symbols on the outer ring of the chart Astrological Wheel are the Astrological Signs. As with the Houses, there are 12 Astrological Signs, each representing 30 degrees of space. The natural order of the signs is: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces (more on that in another post). Whatever Sign begins a House is considered the House’s Ruling Sign. In this chart Cancer is Rising (First House). Then the signs follow in consecutive order from that point on. Cancer is followed by: Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus and ending with Gemini Ruling the 12th.

3) The various Symbols you see scattered within the Houses are the Celestial Bodies (often just referenced as planets and luminaries). These are the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus and Pluto. Additionally there are important angles/points included in a birth chart, including the Ascendant (always represented by the Astrological Sign that rules your First House) and the North Node (the earphone shaped symbol). Each one of these has a place in your chart, falling in a House and in a Sign. For example, this person Sun is in the 10th House/Pisces; Moon in the 6th House/Sag; Jupiter 9th House/Aquarius; North Node 8th House/Aquarius. Can you find them?

4) The green lines indicate Trines and Sextile, aka harmonious, aspects between the CBs or angles they connect. For example, here, Moon/6th/Sag is Trine Venus/10th/Aries; Sun 10th/Pisces is Sextile Mars/7th/Capricorn and North Node/8th/Aquarius.

5) The red lines are Oppositions, a hard aspect, which represent areas where there is a sort of “tug of war” between the CBs or angles they connect In this case there is only one opposition—Jupiter/9th/Aquarius Opposite Uranus/3rd/Virgo (barely).

6) The yellow lines are Squares, another hard aspect, forming a tension between the connected CBs or angle. An example here is Pluto/11th/Taurus Squares Uranus/3rd/Virgo (barely).

7) The small red lines are Conjunctions, also considered a hard aspect, but one that’s “easier” than the others, providing an emphasis or intense focus of energy between the CBs or angle. Here, there’s only one: Mars/7th/ Capricorn Conjuncts North Node/7th/Capricorn.

These aspects all are determined by the angles/degrees (within a margin, not exceeding 10 degrees) between the CBs and angles/points involved. For example, a Trine represents 120 degrees between two (or more) CBs and/or angles/points, give or take up to 8ish degrees; a Sextile 60 degrees within margin; an Opposition 180 degrees within margin; a Square 90 degrees) within margin; and a Conjunction 0 degrees within margin (in case of a Conjunction 2 degrees or so).

Having a combination of these Conjunctions, Oppositions, Squares and Trines/Sextiles is actually a good thing, with the red and yellow aspects indicating opportunities for personal growth (Wayne Dyer), success (Steve Jobs), genius (Einstein) and inspiration (Deepak Chopra), often with much hard work, but well worth it! The green aspects represent areas of ease that can be capitalized upon to help manifest a positive outcome of the squares and oppositions, especially as you mature. Or not. Sometimes it can depends on how you allow these aspects affect your personality and choices. At myastrologylife.com, despite any struggle there might be, we choose to focus on the positive side of the coin, and you can, too.

There are several more aspects, all determined by the degrees between them, but the aforementioned three are the basic and most common ones to be concerned about for now.

Note: The colors used to represent the aspects are myastrologylife.com’s…and much to the chagrin of one astrologer colleague…and are not necessarily industry standard.

BTW: Can you guess whose chart this is? There is an Easter Egg, but we’ll be sure to tell all soon.